Jonathan Darlington is music director of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Opera. He demands the highest level of commitment and professionalism from his musicians which has led directly to the increased quality and popularity of both orchestras. A graduate of Durham University and the Royal Academy of Music, he began his career as freelance pianist, accompanist and repetiteur in France. His work was influenced early on by such outstanding musical personalities of our time as Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti and Olivier Messiaen. He made his conducting debut in 1984 at the Parisian Theatre des Champs Elysees with Francesco Cavalli’s baroque opera “Ormindo”, and in 1991, as deputy to the Music Director Myung-Whun Chung at the Paris Opera with “Le nozze di Figaro”.

Renowned for his vast symphonic and operatic repertoire which ranges from the baroque to the contemporary with an emphasis on lesser known works outside the European mainstream, he is a regular guest at the Orchestre National de France, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica del San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the National Orchestra of Taiwan, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the English National Opera, and Sydney Opera. His most recent successes include the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s ‘La Grande Magia’ with the Staatkapelle Dresden and Gustave Charpentier’s ‘Louise’ with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Jonathan Darlington holds the distinctions of a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres as well as an Honorary LRAM and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London (FRAM).

Website of Jonathan Darlington